Gwent closed beta gets update with new cards and major tweaks

Still no word on when the game will be released.

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If you were one of the lucky ones to get into The Witcher 3's Gwent card game closed beta when it launched back in October, then you will be happy to know that the new 0.8.33 patch is available on PC and Xbox One.

The update adds 20 new cards, ranked matches, and new premium cards, as well as a huge laundry list of faction changes, bug fixes and polish. Community Manager Marcin Momot and Lead Programmer Jason Slama of developer CD Projekt Red talked about the changes and additions in a new video about the patch.

Here are the latest patch notes:

  • New Gold Special Card - Renew.
  • New Gold Special Card - Bekker's Twisted Mirror.
  • New Silver Special Card - Alzur's Double-Cross.
  • New Bronze Special Card - Dimeritium Shackles.
  • New Bronze Special Card - Mardroeme.
  • New Bronze Special Card - Quen Sign.
  • New Silver Unit Card - Dudu.
  • New Silver Unit Card - Iris.
  • New Silver Unit Card - King of Beggars.
  • New Gold Unit Card - Yennefer: The Conjurer.
  • New Gold Unit Card - Geralt: Aard.
  • New Gold Unit Card - Ciri: Dash.
  • All units that reach 0 base strength will be banished from the game upon removal.
  • If a unit is banished, it will not trigger its abilities based on removal.
  • Promoted units will lose their Gold status upon returning to the player's hand.
  • Borkh's name changed to Villentretenmerth.
  • Villentretenmerth's strength changed from 9 to 7.
  • Operator's strength changed from 4 to 6.
  • Alzur's Thunder damage changed from 6 to 7.
  • Johnny should no longer briefly reveal the card created to the opponent.
  • Several units that have triggers upon their death now have a passive icon again.
  • The Rally effect should no longer get stuck if you have no units to draw.

Monsters

  • New Gold Unit Card - Kayran.
  • New Silver Unit Card - Katakan.
  • Frightener's strength changed from 2 to 4.
  • Frightener changed from Melee to Siege row.
  • Frightener's ability changed to the following - Every 2 turns, banish a random non-Gold special card in your graveyard and gain 3 strength.
  • Grave Hag's countdown changed from 2 to 1.
  • Nekker's ability changed to the following - While in your hand or deck, gain 1 strength whenever a unit on your side absorbs another's strength. When removed from the battlefield, play a Nekker from your deck.
  • Nekker Warrior's strength changed from 4 to 5.
  • Cards created by Nekker Warrior now move properly to the deck.
  • Crones now properly summon copies of themselves.
  • Cards drawn by Giant Toad should now animate correctly.

Skellige

  • New Gold Unit Card - Coral.
  • New Silver Unit Card - Champion of Champions.
  • Sigrdrifa's passive ability will only be triggered by your own resurrections.
  • Ermion will now make you discard 2 cards before drawing 2 cards.
  • Savage Bear will no longer damage spawned units.
  • Svanrige will make you discard 1 card before you can draw 1 card.
  • Clan Dimun Pirate's strength changed from 6 to 5.
  • Clan Tuirseach Axeman's ability will now also trigger when a unit is destroyed due to its strength being reduced to 0 by a damaging ability.
  • War Longship's strength changed from 5 to 4.
  • An Craite Raider's strength changed from 4 to 3.
  • Draig Bon Dhu's ability changed from +1 to +2.
  • Hjalmar's strength changed from 10 to 15.
  • Donar an Hindar's ability order and tooltip description now match correctly.
  • Hemdall now removes units from the board instead of dealing 99 damage to them.
  • Fixed an issue where Cerys' VFX would sometimes not trigger properly.

Northern Realms

  • New Gold Unit Card - Keira Metz.
  • New Silver Unit Card - Trololo.
  • Reaver Scouts can now only target appropriate units.
  • Agile units played by Reaver Scouts will now allow you to choose the row they are played on.
  • Dandelion's ability changed so that it now only gives +1 to enemy units. It also no longer affects spawned units.
  • Promoted Reaver Hunters and Blue Stripes Commandos will now receive their buffs correctly.
  • Reinforced Siege Tower and Reinforced Ballista will now trigger their own abilities when promoted.
  • Sabrina Glevissig's damage changed from 4 to 3.
  • Nenneke's strength changed from 3 to 4.
  • Reinforcement can now only target appropriate units.

Scoia'tael

  • New Gold Unit Card - Schirrú.
  • New Silver Unit Card - Malena.
  • Braenn's strength changed from 5 to 3.
  • Braenn's ability changed to the following - Remove an amount equal to this unit's strength from an opposing non-Gold unit.
  • Isengrim will now spawn 1 Commando Neophyte instead of 2.
  • Commando Neophyte's strength changed from 2 to 3.
  • Aglaïs can now only resurrect special cards from your own graveyard.
  • Aelirenn will no longer gain +1 strength when played.
  • Aelirenn's strength changed from 5 to 6.
  • Vrihedd Dragoon's ability changed to the following - Add 3 strength to a non-Gold unit in your hand.
  • Fireball Trap's ability changed to the following - When a revealed non-gold unit appears on the opposite side, remove 5 strength from it.
  • Morenn's ability changed to the following - Destroy an unrevealed ambush card and gain 4 strength.
  • Morenn's strength changed from 4 to 7.
  • Ele'yas' buff value changed from +2 to +3.
  • Saskia's artwork has changed from Human to Dragon form.
  • Fixed an issue where Ida Emean would cause interaction problems after countering the effects of special cards.
  • Fixed an issue with inconsistent triggering of Hawker Support's ability.
  • Fixed an issue with inconsistent triggering of Vrihedd Sapper's ability.
  • Francesca should no longer cause errors when played with an empty hand.

Game fixes / changes:

  • Keyboard and mouse controls should now be more unified.
  • Fixed an issue where cards in the graveyard could remain in the foreground.
  • Fixed a crash when placing the first card on the board in the deckbuilder tutorial.
  • It's now possible to sort cards based on rarity in the deckbuilder using mouse only.

Game polishes:

  • Daily rewards have been reworked to function off rounds won rather than game wins.
  • The daily rewards interface has been reworked significantly.
  • The level system has been reworked and is now capped at 100.
  • Rewards and feature unlocks from levels 2-100 have been added.
  • Any account above level 10 has been reset to level 10. Rewards for levels 2-10 will automatically be added to your account.
  • Ranked play has been added to the game, featuring 15 ranks.
  • Rank up rewards have been added to the game from ranks 2-15.
  • A leaderboard for the top 1,000 players has been added to the game.
  • The Vs screen has been upgraded significantly.
  • Numerous redundant spaces fixed in several tooltips.
  • Numerous minor tooltip and text fixes across all languages.
  • Spawned cards should now appear much more quickly.
  • Fixed the translation of Permadeath in Russian.
  • Countdown timers should now take less time to display.
  • Added information about being able to resurrect Permadeath units to certain cards.
  • Reworked Victory Screen to improve the flow of match rewards.
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